'Ethicists' Could Help Social Media Companies Combat 'Fake News,' Expert Says

(CBS) -- A prominent academic here in Chicago says Social Media companies like Facebook and Google should hire someone to be in charge of ethics, which could help combat so-called "fake news."

WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports.

Don Heider, Dean of Loyola University's School of Communications, says the companies could appoint "chief ethicists" to monitor content.

"What the tech firms are amazing at is innovating, is coming up with new platforms, news apps for us, without really thinking through how people are going to use them, what the dangers are, how people might attack each or hurt each other on those platforms," Heider says.

He says Facebook previously had a team of people to screen postings, but replaced them with a computer algorithm.

He admits people trained in ethics cannot filter out all dubious stories.